Tomorrow, Monday, is my big day

I have an acronym for you: MEPS. This stands for Military Enlistment Processing Station. Now you may be asking: What am I doing there? Well, I'm going to be enlisting in the U.S. Military, and to be more specific on branch, I will be joining the Marines. I leave tomorrow at 9:30a.m. to a 3 hour drive down to St. Louis on a shuttle bus. I will be there for two days. The first day there I will be taking my ASVAB, which will qualify me for various jobs that the Marines has to offer. This test will take around 2 hours, so after I'm done, it will be later in the day. I'll be staying in a hotel room, and I'll be waking up at 5:00a.m. the next day to complete the enlistment process. The next day will consist of drug testing, and an extremely thorough physical examination. But basically after that, I will be on my way to sign my contracts and to take the oath. When I take the oath, I will be committed to the USMC. I will finish schooling before I am shipped out to San Diego for recruit training though, which will be next summer, so I still have plenty of time here.

From what I hear though, the time I spend at MEPS will be 90% sitting around, and 10% actually doing something. For every 4 hours of sitting around, there will be 15 minutes of examinations, interviews, etc. I'll be gone Monday morning from Tuesday night. Never knew enlistment would take this long. <_<

Basically I am extremely nervous, this is something I wanted to pursue all my life but now that I am actually finally doing it, it just seems a lot more real.

From what I hear though, the time I spend at MEPS will be 90% sitting around, and 10% actually doing something. For every 4 hours of sitting around, there will be 15 minutes of examinations, interviews, etc. I'll be gone Monday morning from Tuesday night. Never knew enlistment would take this long. <_<

Good luck, man.
U.S. Marines...good choice. Maybe I'll see you out in the fleet.

Oh, and about all that hurrying up and waiting around...get used to it. That's how the military operates.

I have an acronym for you: MEPS. This stands for Military Enlistment Processing Station. Now you may be asking: What am I doing there? Well, I'm going to be enlisting in the U.S. Military, and to be more specific on branch, I will be joining the Marines. I leave tomorrow at 9:30a.m. to a 3 hour drive down to St. Louis on a shuttle bus. I will be there for two days. The first day there I will be taking my ASVAB, which will qualify me for various jobs that the Marines has to offer. This test will take around 2 hours, so after I'm done, it will be later in the day. I'll be staying in a hotel room, and I'll be waking up at 5:00a.m. the next day to complete the enlistment process. The next day will consist of drug testing, and an extremely thorough physical examination. But basically after that, I will be on my way to sign my contracts and to take the oath. When I take the oath, I will be committed to the USMC. I will finish schooling before I am shipped out to San Diego for recruit training though, which will be next summer, so I still have plenty of time here.

From what I hear though, the time I spend at MEPS will be 90% sitting around, and 10% actually doing something. For every 4 hours of sitting around, there will be 15 minutes of examinations, interviews, etc. I'll be gone Monday morning from Tuesday night. Never knew enlistment would take this long. <_<

Basically I am extremely nervous, this is something I wanted to pursue all my life but now that I am actually finally doing it, it just seems a lot more real.

I'm glad you posted this because I went through MEPS not too long ago myself. They keep you moving around most of the time so you won't be too bored. I do have one tip though, don't take too much protein the night before the physical, it messes with the drug test and it could make you fail it. As for the ASVAB I thought it was fairly easy, you should do fine. Just speak clearly and don't ask questions and your day will go by smoothly.

I know how you feel though. I'm in the army national guard and I ship for basic and AIT on the 26th of this month! I already somewhat know what the army is like so I'm not too bothered about leaving for basic. I figure you only get yelled at if you're doing something wrong and if you can't take a little yelling from time to time you may want to consider a different career. I'm also fairly familiar with a certain principle that you will find in any branch and that is "Hurry up and wait" if you don't know what I mean I'm sure you will be drowned with it soon enough.

Hey Ray, good luck at basic. I had a buddy that went through MEPS, but picked up an NROTC scholarship, same as me.

I know a few enlisted Marines and most of them love their jobs, and if it's what you've wanted, you've made a good choice.

And I agree with whoever said the military is all about waiting around. I was doing a month of training in June and like you, we did shit about 10% of the time and the rest was sitting, getting yelled at, or driving somewhere.

and i think you can also get a license to legally buy any fully automatic weapon, right?

As long as the state allows, anyone that pays the NFA class 3 stamp fee and can afford a fully automatic gun, could obtain one. It is sorta a pain with the amount of paper work and waiting time but if you can legally own a handgun then you can "most likely" purchase one.

Thanks for the kind words guys. Im really excited. A tear actually came out of my eye yesterday when I took the oath, I was so happy. This has been a childhood dream and it's finally starting to take shape!